THE DATA DOMAIN

You have a business and you want everyone to know about. One way to do this is by joining social networking websites. But, while doing this, there is an etiquette you should follow. The goal is to keep the attention of your friends or followers, gain their confidence, and become the respected expert in your field. Depending on the type of business you own, you want to build partnerships, customer relationships, credibility; and you want to increase brand awareness. You don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. So, here are some suggestions that will help establish these attributes.

Create a “Human” Profile
Create a profile that shares “your” story, your brand and your business. Keep it conversational as if you’re talking to a person you happen to meet at a social gathering. People want to know you. They want to get a feel for your character. If you show you’re human and that you care about what they do, people will warm up to you and trust you.

Add a Signature to Your Communication
When sending messages or posting to a social networking website, always add your signature. Your signature should consist of your full name, the name of your business(es), and a link to each of your businesses, websites or blogs. People need to know where to find you and your websites. Don’t ever assume that people do not want seek you out. If you have a good product and you’ve proven to be an expert in your field, they want to find you.

Contribute, Contribute, Contribute
The only way people will know who you are is if you contribute to the website. Get involved in some of the topics, especially topics related to your field. Create interesting topics and engage them with questions to draw them in. Sometimes attention-getting statements made on Twitter or Facebook can draw people to your website just because they’ve become curious about what you’re saying. For example: “Miracle Supplement Brings the Dead Back to Life!” Great attention-getter when you sell natural energy supplements.
Remember, let them know you’re human, share who you are, where you can be found, and communicate, communicate, communicate! Success is imminent!

So, you wrote a great article that’s interesting or that is about your product or business. How do you get traffic to your website, so that people can read it and possibly benefit from it? Here are great suggestions that will help get traffic to your article and website.

First, want to start with social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Tagged, and of course, there are a lot more. With these social networking websites, you can create a link to your website article. But, just don’t create a link and leave it at that. Write something like, “How I turned $5 into $500,000.00”, and either make that statement a link, or add next to it, “Click here to find out how I did it!” You’ve not only provided a link, but you’ve got their attention, and now they want to find out how they can turn $5 into $500,000.00!

Another suggestion is to engage them by asking a question and then providing the link to the answer, or by answering the question in general and referring them to the link for more information. The whole point is to get them to your website article, thus, drawing traffic and possible interest in your product or business.
Don’t have a blog? Get one. It is great way to gain a following and link them to your business website or product. You can put a portion of your article on the blog, with a link that leads to the entire article on your main website.

Another great tool is YouTube. Create a short video or a Power Point presentation with general information about your business or product, with a reference to your website article. People like viewing rather than reading. So, using this avenue can get way more attention and traffic to your website article than some social network marketing websites. For more effective Power Point presentations or videos, try using software like Camtasia or Cam Studio. These software tools capture pictures creatively.

This article only taps the surface of leveraging Social Network Marketing to gain traffic to your website articles. But, these suggestions can get you started on the right path.